the invasion of the monologues i.b.m.
I like theatre. Classical, contemporary, drama, comedy, and of course, monologues. It must be really difficult to stand up in front of a mike and start saying things that have to make people laugh. Yep, I really do like them, but I also like wild mushrooms too and I don’t have them in my corn flakes every morning! Lately monologues are sprouting up everywhere... like mushrooms!!!
I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve just about had my fill of them. Have you ever had so much of something that later on you can’t even stand the smell of it? What do you mean no? Remember the Patxaran? I wouldn’t like to feel the same about monologues but the way it’s going it’s getting harder and harder not to.
I get home from work, turn on the television and because I don’t fell like watching junk T.V., I stick on Canal Plus and, what do I see, any old famous git spouting on about their everyday life... as if I hadn’t got enough of everyday dribble of my own! In hope, I turn over to ETB: some bloke with the same waffle as the other, oh yes, it’s more local, but still the same waffle. So I turn off the telly and snuggle up in bed with a book... Just like the man said: “T.V. sustains culture.”
I read the paper as I have breakfast; unemployment here, condemnation of sky-high house prices there, some new law on citizen control..., Jesus! Desperately looking for a something better I skip straight through to the What’s On section: “Eleven Men in Search of Adulthood” at the Arriaga Theatre at eight in the evening. That'll do grand.
So there I am, sitting in my seat, waiting for the lights to go down and just dying to be anonymous. There are eleven men up on the stage, yeess, but, hang on a sec, one of them steps forward and... starts talking to me!! That's when I say to myself: surely it can't be eleven monologues? Well, no, it's just the one, but yer man tells me what has happened and then the rest of them show me... a bit of action at least...mother of God!! Then the narrator steps to the fore again and same again. I mean, I get to see a bit of action, but if they've explained everything to me before I see it, that just turns me into a totally passive spectator. What’s the point? And I have to pay 18 euro for the pleasure!!
As always I've missed the last bus home; I know the driver saw me legging for the bus, heaving my guts up, but he still leaves me there gulping down air on the side of the road. I manage to flag down a taxi after half an hour. The taxi driver starts rabbiting on: I get a profound analysis of the current political situation in exchange for 6 euro... I'm up to here with it all! I spend the whole day careering from one monologue to another: in the lift, at the hairdresser's, at work, with the other half, on the telly and at the theatre? What next? Monologues at the cinema?
It's as plain as the nose on your face that the monologue is a formula that works. And as always occurs in cases like this, some people do it well and that's something to be grateful for. But others have just jumped on the bandwagon in search of quick and easy success and that's the end of any inner journey in drama. I don't want to forfeit those journeys, I want to see new stories and worlds, I don't care if they are not real; I just want to live there for an hour and a half and witness their conversations!!
I don’t know about you lot, but I’ve just about had my fill of them. Have you ever had so much of something that later on you can’t even stand the smell of it? What do you mean no? Remember the Patxaran? I wouldn’t like to feel the same about monologues but the way it’s going it’s getting harder and harder not to.
I get home from work, turn on the television and because I don’t fell like watching junk T.V., I stick on Canal Plus and, what do I see, any old famous git spouting on about their everyday life... as if I hadn’t got enough of everyday dribble of my own! In hope, I turn over to ETB: some bloke with the same waffle as the other, oh yes, it’s more local, but still the same waffle. So I turn off the telly and snuggle up in bed with a book... Just like the man said: “T.V. sustains culture.”
I read the paper as I have breakfast; unemployment here, condemnation of sky-high house prices there, some new law on citizen control..., Jesus! Desperately looking for a something better I skip straight through to the What’s On section: “Eleven Men in Search of Adulthood” at the Arriaga Theatre at eight in the evening. That'll do grand.
So there I am, sitting in my seat, waiting for the lights to go down and just dying to be anonymous. There are eleven men up on the stage, yeess, but, hang on a sec, one of them steps forward and... starts talking to me!! That's when I say to myself: surely it can't be eleven monologues? Well, no, it's just the one, but yer man tells me what has happened and then the rest of them show me... a bit of action at least...mother of God!! Then the narrator steps to the fore again and same again. I mean, I get to see a bit of action, but if they've explained everything to me before I see it, that just turns me into a totally passive spectator. What’s the point? And I have to pay 18 euro for the pleasure!!
As always I've missed the last bus home; I know the driver saw me legging for the bus, heaving my guts up, but he still leaves me there gulping down air on the side of the road. I manage to flag down a taxi after half an hour. The taxi driver starts rabbiting on: I get a profound analysis of the current political situation in exchange for 6 euro... I'm up to here with it all! I spend the whole day careering from one monologue to another: in the lift, at the hairdresser's, at work, with the other half, on the telly and at the theatre? What next? Monologues at the cinema?
It's as plain as the nose on your face that the monologue is a formula that works. And as always occurs in cases like this, some people do it well and that's something to be grateful for. But others have just jumped on the bandwagon in search of quick and easy success and that's the end of any inner journey in drama. I don't want to forfeit those journeys, I want to see new stories and worlds, I don't care if they are not real; I just want to live there for an hour and a half and witness their conversations!!
